Three Quick Remote-Living Ideas for Your Digital Families

As remote learning, remote working and remote life continues around the world, many parents are looking for ways to get schoolwork done in optimal conditions. It is true that many of us did not expect the pandemic to continue as long as it has, but parents are getting creative in ways to support their families. Three themes have popped up in conversations among digital parents and I wanted to share their best ideas and resources here: 

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Understanding the Technology Basics‍

• Remote learning has been happening in various phases and this has given parents exposure to different video conferencing platforms and the basics on using those platforms.
• Parents should confirm whether their children are expected to use cameras, microphones and how and when to turn them on and off.
• Parents should understand the class policy on raising hands, turning in projects, using the school network and class netiquette, in general.
• This is a great opportunity to speak to other parents, the teachers and of course, your own children, about how to best use technology.

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Keeping Your Child Engaged with Their Online School Activities‍

• Parents can reduce multi-tasking by finding creative ways to keep children engaged in schoolwork.
• Setting your child up to succeed online, may mean using apps for productivity or even old-fashioned egg timers.
• Parents can consider how to set-up their child’s space to reduce distractions and to allow their child to focus.
• For younger children, parents can ask their child (before class begins) to be ready to share two important ideas that they learned during class.

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Creating a School Time Environment in any Space

• Set up your child’s space so that remote learning feels like school time. This means having a desk, corner of a kitchen table or corner of the room that is designated for school.
• You may even want to change devices (if possible) so that your child is on a computer for school, on a tablet for gaming, and on a phone for chats with grandma.
• You will want your child to physically feel a change so that a remote learning day doesn’t just blur into online all day.
• Be sure to check the lighting and distance to the monitor to protect your child’s eyesight.
• Make sure that the chair is appropriate and that your child takes frequent posture breaks, either by stretching, walking around the room or just standing tall.

Here is a quick list of additional resources to support your families including:

Ask the Mediatrician – blog, podcast or submit a question to learn how you and your family can best use media in healthy and mindful ways.

Family Lockdown Tips and Ideas - a global hub of innovation, creativity and support to make family time, and everything in between, as great as it can be.  

Amazing Educational Resources - A educator community to share the good, bad, and ugly about the many teacher resources on the internet.

Digital Parenting Community – an online community of parents, educators, child online experts, psychologists and more, that share ideas and strategies as we parent in the digital age.

The Happiness Lab - Yale professor Dr Laurie Santos shares the latest scientific research and inspiring stories that will forever alter the way you think about happiness.